Atlas knows how it feels to carry the weight of the world; but why, he asks himself, does it have to be carried at all? And when you have eternity to ponder this question, the brief reprieve offered by Heracles — the only man strong enough to borrow the burden — can force you to demand an answer from the gods. But maybe the gods don't know the answer. Or maybe the right questions were never asked before...
It's time the story was retold.
With wit and verve, Jeanette Winterson brings Atlas into the space age, and sets him free at last. Simultaneously, she asks her own difficult questions about the nature of choice and coercion, and how we forge our own destiny. Visionary and inventive, yet completely believable and relevant to the questions we ask ourselves every day, Winterson's skill in turning the familiar on its head and showing us a different truth is once more put to dazzling effect.
